Qui Vive! Center for Writing,
Book Arts & Performance
Register now for Summer 2011 Poetry Workshop
Tuesdays & Thursdays, July 5 - Aug. 4 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Arcadia Unversity's Qui Vive! Center for Writing, Book Arts, and Performance (formerly Young Writers Project) helps Philadelphia-area middle and secondary students believe in themselves as writers and poets through the process of experimenting, manipulating, and performing the written word. We believe that youth who think of themselves as competent and creative writers produce powerful and interesting writing, both creative and analytic. We offer afterschool classes and workshops, a summer poetry workshop, teacher development opportunities, and write with your kids sessions.
Afterschool Classes and Workshops
Our teachers and writers are experienced in many different kinds of writing: from poetry to prose to literary essays to music and ethnography. With this depth and breadth of writing knowledge we're able to offer such unique workshops as urban nature writing, local history and poetry, letters, music interviewing, and image and text. All workshops culminate in publication and performance of the participants' work.
Summer Poetry Workshop
Every summer for two weeks we offer an intensive poetry writing workshop for middle and high school students. Each day participants read a diverse selection of contemporary poetry, write their own poems, discuss them in small and large groups, and read them aloud in a community of their peers. Students and facilitators generate writing through a series of exercises-including memory pieces, sketches, letters, collaborative poems, lists, and recipes. If you want be excited about writing, to see the world around you as a treasure trove of inspirational ideas, and to develop an "I write too" mentality, then this is the program for you. This work culminates in the publication of their own poems as well as a group anthology of favorite pieces. Finally, members of the workshop have an opportunity to perform selected pieces to a larger audience of peers, parents, and other invited guests.
Teacher Professional Developement
As writers and teachers ourselves, we're concerned about the place of arts education in the climate of high stakes testing and curricular mandates. More than ever, it is necessary to develop an informed and comprehensive teaching practice that acknowledges what current literacy research tells us: students immersed in a rich and diverse reading and writing environment where they are honored as creators of literature become skillful and articulate readers, writers, and citizens. We offer a one and two week, intensive workshop for teachers. In this workshop, teachers adopt the daily habits of writers and learn how to translate this work into their pedagogy.
We are commited to working together with teachers to address important questions like these: How do we integrate creative writing into the curricular standards of our districts? How do we find ways of facilitating collaborative learning amongst students? How do we create infrastructures for our classes that supportstudents as writers? How do we communicate the power and importance of this work to colleagues and administrators? How do we connect the writing classroom to the world outside?
Write with Your Kids!
This Spring, we began offering a workshop where parents and their kids (whatever age!) come and write together. The teacher-facilitator provides interesting and fun writing activities that enable children and their parent(s), guardian, or friend to find quirky, humorous, serious, and fresh writing down on the page.
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